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That Word....

© Loribeth Hawkeye Wade

I remember as a child, when my parents would fight, my Dad would call my mom, a Squaw. Needless to say, my Mom would have a few words of her own that she would throw back at my Dad. I'd say, all in all, it was a pretty fair fight. I always thought Squaw as a pretty common word, no big deal.

Then I grew up. I found out, years ago, that the word Squaw was a very nasty derogatory word meaning labia and labia is the nice word for it. Then recently I found out even more information about the word Squaw form ishgooda, whose commentary can be found at http://suite101.com/discussion.cfm/ameri... The word Squaw comes form an Algonquin word that was bastardized from the word maji iquaw, when heard by the English and French centuries ago. The Algonquin word maji iquaw means "fallen woman" or "bad woman". And was not considered a nice term for women.

Last Friday, March 10th; on the ABC show 20/20. John Stossel had a segment call "Give Me a Break". I happened to have been in the NAC AOL chat room when I heard them talking about it. The people talking about it where from the East Coast so I knew I could still catch it knowing I was on the West Coast. As the Segment opened I was Mr. Stossel and Ms. Walters as they introduced the segment and I thought to myself, "Give Me a Break? This can't be good". As I sat there with my mouth open, looking back and forth from the Television to my Husband, I could not believe what I was hearing. Mr. Stossel was saying that the term Squaw was nothing more then an American Indian term that meant woman and that American Indians we going just to far in wanting the hundreds of lakes, rivers and mountains changed. Had Mr. Stossel researched his segment a but further he would have known what the term truly meant. He had spoke with Rep. Donna Loring, who is in Maine and is working to have many land sites with the name Squaw changed. And if the truth were known, Rep. Donna Loring told him exactly what the word meant. As usual, like most reporters, it was totally disregarded and made light of. As was the whole segment, nothing but a joke and a lack of respect. I, myself, fired off e-mail to Mr. Stossel saying I wondered how he would have felt about the derogatory terms used in the 60's for African Americans. Oh course not meaning to show my ignorance here, we know that many of those terms are still used today, however you do not see Sambo Lake anywhere or Tar Baby Mountain. Here is a link to the Stossel, 20/20 Web Site: http://www.abcnews.go.com/onair/GiveMeAB...